A SPECIALIST school in Liden has joined an elite group of 40 nationwide to have been recognised as an inclusive institution.

The Chalet School yesterday received two plaques from Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM), a standard for assessing schools against a nationally recognised framework on inclusion.

Over the course of March and April this year the school worked to meet the criteria necessary to achieve IQM status and then go one step further and become an IQM Centre of Excellence, of which there are only 40 in the UK.

Chalet caters for pupils aged three to 11, who have complex learning difficulties, with the majority carrying an autistic spectrum condition.

The school was praised for its attempts to include its pupils in mainstream society, with one class of 12 mixing with the mainstream Liden Primary School, which stands on the same site.

Chalet will retain its Centre of Excellence status for at least the next three years, though it will be assessed annually by IQM, who ensure the school is carrying out the action plan it drew up to first gain the status.

Edwina Astle, inclusion leader at Chalet, said: “In everything we do we consider equal opportunities for the children and staff.

“We include outside agencies, parents and governors too. We have an ethos established where everybody is included whenever we can, in the hope that is reciprocated.”

Joe McCann, managing director at IQM, said: “They are giving the children the opportunity to work in a mainstream setting.

“This is exactly where they will be working in the coming years, so this form of inclusion is essential.”